THE FIA's Formula Two
championship is set to go down
to the wire in the final three
races this season, as title rivals
Dean Stoneman and Jolyon Palmer
remain inseparable after six hotly
contested rounds in Europe and North
Africa.
Going into last weekend's Brands
Hatch round of the 2010 championship,
Palmer and Stoneman occupied the
first two places in the standings, almost
three race wins clear of the chasing pack
and it was business as usual for the pair's
second home race of the year, as they
did battle on the historic Brands Hatch
Grand Prix track.
The spec series returned to existence
at the behest of former FIA president
Max Mosley in 2009 with the aim of
becoming a strong feeder series to
Formula One at an affordable price.
Competitors pay £275,000 (US$420k) for
a full season's racing, making top-level
single-seater racing more accessible to
a wider audience, while drivers work
with different engineers at every race to
ensure the driver with the very best skill
is rewarded and not just those in the
best teams.
After a successful inaugural season, in
which Spain's Andy Soucek triumphed
before securing a reserve driver role at
Virgin Racing, the Williams-designed
JPH1 chassis and 1.8 litre Audi engine
were tweaked to improve performance,
resulting in a 1.5 second improvement
in laptimes and making the series even
more F1-relevant.
As a supporting act to the World
Touring Car Championship's (WTCC)
European rounds, the series visits some
of motor racing's most prestigious
circuits, including Silverstone, Monza,
Zolder, Portimao and Brands.
Organisers had hoped to boost the
entry list to 30 drivers for 2010, having
run with 25 cars for much of 2009, but
despite the reasonable entry cost just
22 drivers signed up to compete, once
again highlighting the hit motor racing
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